Who are the new Miami Marlins managerial candidates?

The Miami Marlins need a new manager and I wrote about some intriguing replacements for us already. Don Mattingly is gone and it’s time for someone new to lead The Fish. That “someone new” could be either Joe Espada or Pedro Grifol. Both of them were recently interviewed for our managerial opening, but both seem pretty anonymous options that puzzled our fanbase on social media. Who are they? Let’s look into that and whether they’re good fits to manage the Miami Marlins.

Joe Espada and Pedro Grifol are candidates to manage the Miami Marlins.

Who is Pedro Grifol? Grifol is currently a bench coach with the Kansas City Royals, and has been in that role since 2013. This means that he’s been a part of both their 2014 American League pennant winning team, and their 2015 World Series winning team. That’s pretty impressive, though makes you also wonder what role he specifically played to help those teams.

Pedro Grifol spent a total of nine seasons playing in the Minor Leagues for both the Minnesota Twins and the New York Mets. Unfortunately for Grifol, he was never able to make it to the Major Leagues as a player.

Grifol finally made it as a bench coach, and might soon be a manager. He is actually in high demand and is also being pursued by Kansas City’s division rivals the Chicago White Sox. I would imagine they would prefer he would take his intimate knowledge of the team to another league. He has winning experience and that can be an asset to The Fish.

What about Joe Espada? Who is he? He’s actually the bench coach for the Houston Astros. That’s naturally a question mark, especially considering he was part of their 2017 World Series winning team, that are known cheaters. He also has winning experience, as despite their cheating they were still a good team. He also spent nine seasons in the Minor Leagues as a player (with the Oakland Athletics).

Espada retired as a player in 2007 and worked as a front office employee and coach with the Miami Marlins and the New York Yankees. He has knowledge of our team so that helps as well. Could he bring us a winning culture without knocking on garbage cans after stealing signs?

Both Joe Espada and Pedro Grifol have experience winning the World Series. Both have experience winning pennants. They could be good options to manage the Miami Marlins.